How We Unmask ICE

When ICE agents operate in plain clothes and without visible ID, it creates the perfect cover for abuse

Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents are abducting people from the street, forcing their way into schools, churches, and hospitals, and terrorizing communities. And they are doing it in plain clothes and without identification.

These are not lawful arrests. This is state-sanctioned abduction. Period.

Without visible badges and names, people have no way to confirm if they are interacting with legitimate government officials—leaving everyone vulnerable to chaos, confusion, and danger caused by bad actors impersonating law enforcement. It raises the already fraught political temperature even more by stoking uncertainty and fear in the individuals being questioned and detained, as well as in bystanders.

And it creates dangerous conditions that leave communities vulnerable.

When ICE agents operate in plain clothes and without visible ID, it creates the perfect cover for abuse. Multiple alarming news reports have already surfaced of bad actors impersonating ICE across the country—kidnapping, robbing, assaulting, and scamming people. These accounts are horrific. The increased anonymity of ICE agents increases the likelihood of these kinds of incidents and recklessly endangers everyone.

Let’s be clear: Immigration enforcement officers should not be allowed to hide behind masks and omit pertinent information such as their names, badge numbers, and agencies.

When ICE agents hide their identity, it makes it impossible for individuals to hold officials accountable for their actions. It opens the floodgates for abuses of power and unchecked violations of our civil and human rights. As Trump ramps up his mass deportation plans—allocating billions of dollars to more ICE agents and detention centers—it becomes even more urgent that communities have visibility and transparency into who is carrying out these inhumane raids.

Elected officials in California and New York are working to pass legislation to stop ICE officials from covering their faces. But people across the country need to have the same transparency and protection. That's why members of Congress have introduced legislation, the VISIBLE Act, requiring immigration enforcement officers to display clearly legible identification, prohibiting nonmedical face coverings, and establishing disciplinary procedures for violations.

We're going to need every single Democrat in Congress to use their position to sound the alarm, speak out about the consequences of ICE's cowardly actions, and expose ICE’s abuse, and there are two actions you can take RIGHT NOW:

1) Register for our monthly phone bank on Monday, July 28, featuring Senator Alex Padilla, where we’ll contact our friends and neighbors and urge them to pressure their senators to bring the VISIBLE Act to a vote.

2) Join the over 60,000 people who have signed the petition to demand Congress pass the VISIBLE Act and hold ICE accountable.

- MoveOn